Parents' Guide to

Pokemon 3: The Movie

By Nell Minow, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 5+

So-so, violent movie for series fans only.

Movie G 2001 93 minutes
Pokemon 3: The Movie Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

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age 5+

Based on 3 parent reviews

Orangedragon17
Orangedragon17 Adult
July 23, 2018
age 6+

The Best Pokemon movie!

One of my favorite movies of all time that did not get the respect it rightfully deserves. Besides having an engaging plot with some exciting action sequences, Ash and his friends are good role models for little girl Molly Hale who have to convince her to let go of her xenophobia and embrace actual reality as they try to rescue both Ash's Mother and Molly's Father from the Unown's clutches. It shows how living in an artificial reality that bends to your wishes while everyone else suffers is not a way to live, nice touch along with some other psychological imagery such as ice crystals to defend oneself from reality. All in all, more adult than you think, and one worth checking out.

This title has:

Great messages
Great role models
Holly R.
Holly R. Parent of 0-year-old
November 21, 2017
age 2+

One of my favorites

I still get irritated when reviewers say Pokemons when it is ALWAYS pronounced Pokemon even in plural form. But irritations aside I must say that this film out of all the Pokemon movies from the first one to the 20th movie (I Choose You) is by far the easiest one to follow. It's more for the true fan or the older newbies as the DEEPER plot can be boring for little kids. The story is basically a little girl named Molly lost her mother to the Pokemon called Unown and her father researches obsessively because he wants to find out what happened to his wife (this is mentioned by a minor character after her father goes missing as well). Molly finds the box with the "Unown letters" and ends up summoning the mysterious letter Pokemon who have the power to make her dreams a reality. They create an Entei Pokemon from a book that she loved to read with her father and that is why she mistakes the illusion Pokemon as her Papa. Ash his friends get caught up in this mess because Molly wants her Mama and Entei takes Ash's mom. Molly, being too young to remember her own mama, doesn't question Delia (Ash's mom) being her mama and even when Delia snaps out of her trance, she continues to play the role as Molly's mama out of kindness and motherly instincts. In the end of it all the Unown go wild and Entei defeats the Unown and then leaves Molly telling her to "Keep me close in your dreams". I still have no idea why Pokemon gets so much HATE on this site while Frozen gets alot of love and it's WORSE pushing the merchandise and stuff but that's just me I suppose. Overall this is a good film to watch as a family as this is the only Pokemon film to deal with family and what it means directly.

This title has:

Great messages
Great role models
See all 3 parent reviews

What's the Story?

As with the first two POKEMON features, this one includes both a short Pokemon-on-their-own adventure and a longer feature story along the familiar lines of Pokemon Trainer Ash and his pals saving the world. (A primer for newbies: Pokemons are adorable little pocket monsters who love to be caught by their human trainers, who carry them around and deploy them against the pocket monsters of other trainers, to see who is the best.) This time, the threat comes not from a mad scientist, as in the second Pokemon movie, or from a rogue Pokemon, as in the first movie, but from a little girl named Molly who unwittingly causes havoc when she meets up with some Pokemons who grant her every wish.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (3):
Kids say (8):

This movie might be enjoyable for kids who like Pokemon -- and for young parents who grew up in the 1990s and are feeling nostalgic for toys from their childhood. But on the whole, this movie is little more than an infomercial for the Pokemon line of toy products. The kids essentially play Pokemon sans the trading cards, and much of the action is derived from when these toy products come to life and get into battle.

For those who aren't in the above-mentioned categories, this movie is somewhat difficult to follow and not very interesting. There seem to be two or three narratives going on at the same time, but none of them is as remotely engaging and as filled with conflict as the actual battles among Pokemon creatures. Many of the character voicings are annoying and distracting, and the overall result is a muddled movie that feels like little more than an attempt to sell toys.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about how having one's wishes granted may not always be a good thing and about the way the Pokemons take care of each other in the short segment and take care of their human trainers in the feature movie. Older kids may get a kick out of the way that the silly Team Rocket, always trying to get ahead of Ash and his friends, end up helping them out because "without them, we'd be out of show business!" They also may want to talk about the way Molly sees the shape of her Pokemon friend in a cloud and how we can keep those we love inside us always.

  • Does watching this movie make you want to buy all the related action figures, stuffed animals, and playing cards?

  • Does the cartoonish violence seem like it needs to be there? Why, or why not?

Movie Details

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